Interview: Zach Gilford willing to work in 'Mob Doctor's' shadow

September 16, 2012|Luis Gomez | About Last Night

Actor Zach Gilford outside of West Town Bakery & Diner September 13, 2012. (Brent Lewis/Photo for the Chicago Tribune)

Zach Gilford looked more like a college student meeting for a study session than a TV actor meeting for an interview over brunch Thursday at West Town Bakery & Diner. The Evanston native and Northwestern alum, best known for his role as Matt Saracen on NBC’s football drama, “Friday Night Lights,” sat in a booth with his Mountain Hardwear backpack at his side and his bicycle locked up outside the Ukrainian Village restaurant.

He wore mesh Nike shorts and an Obama t-shirt given to him by the writers of “Lost” and later admitted “I didn’t know there would be a photographer” – not that it would have made a big difference. Gilford, 30, isn’t much into fashion. Sure, he likes the John Varvatos clothing he’s wearing on the Chicago set of Fox’s “The Mob Doctor,” in which he plays a doctor whose girlfriend, also a doctor, is secretly doing medical favors for the mob, but he doesn’t like the expensive clothes enough to pay for them.

Gilford is staying in the West Loop while filming “Mob Doctor,” which premieres Monday, but calls Los Angeles home. Here, he talks about why he prefers playing a supporting role on the show, why he’s never watched the last season of “Friday Night Lights” and why he cried during the series finale of “Lost.”

[The following is an edited version of a longer conversation]

Luis: You’re early.

Zach: I’m compulsively on time. It drives me insane when people are late. My Dad is chronically late. And he knows I hate it but still can’t seem to get himself anywhere on time.

[Zach looks over the menu]

Zach: This place is dope. It’s hard to find good breakfast spots -- especially one that has any organic things on the menu. Because I’m in L.A., I’m so used to it. It’s everywhere you go.

Waitress: You guys just hanging out today?

Zach: We’re just hanging out here all day.

Waitress: That sounds really stressful...

Zach: You know what is stressful? I have to work at 5 pm. I had the day off and now they changed it. Now I have to go to work right in the middle of the Bears game. … Can I have the fish tacos? Thank you.

Luis: What have you been doing during your free time in Chicago?

Zach: Eating. Me and my fiancee Kiele [Sanchez] are total foodies.

Luis: I remember her from “Lost.” Were you a “Lost” fan?

Zach: Oh, I loved it. That was the last show that I watched every week for years. Everything now I do on DVD or I buy it on iTunes. It’s this weird thing. I was bawling during the finale. I checked in with these people every week for six years. It was really odd: “Why am I so emotional?” I guess it was because it was six years of my life coming to an end.

Luis: People say the same thing about “Friday Night Lights.”

Zach: Even with that – the time [slot] always got switched around. The majority of people who come up to me say “I just watched three seasons last month.” I don’t run into a lot of people who are like “I watched it from the beginning all the way through.”

Luis: I don’t have DirecTV, so I didn’t see the last season of “Friday Night Lights” until it aired later on NBC.

Zach: I still haven’t seen the last season. I think it’s a couple things. A: I’m kind of putting it off. I don’t want it to be done. B: Kiele didn’t watch it and she doesn’t really want to watch it because she feels like a pedophile [Zach plays a teenager on the show]. She watched one episode and said “I can’t do it. Sorry.” Am I going to make a point to carve out time to watch the show by myself? It feels vain. Maybe sometime I will be on location in Iceland and have nothing to watch.

Luis: Are you someone who has a hard time watching yourself?

Zach: I usually watch once and I’m done with it, just to see what it was. I don’t necessarily like it. I haven’t seen the first episode of “Mob Doctor.” The first scene I saw was a few days ago: “Oh God, I suck. What am I doing? Why did I say it like that? What the [expletive] are you doing, Zach? You’re so lame and boring.” I have a big complex about being vain. I don’t tell anyone what I’m doing. Even family will say “I heard you did this. Why wouldn’t you tell us?” “I feel like I’m bragging.” They’re like “We’re your parents. We want to know.” “Yeah, but you have Google alert on me. You’ll figure it out.”